The immune system & how the colour red can help protect yours
What’s the purpose of the immune system?
Protection! It’s your body’s own natural defence system and it can help protect you from getting the common cold and the flu, and it can also protect you from developing chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer.
How does the immune system protect us?
There’s a variety of highly sophisticated mechanisms through which your immune system keeps you healthy. The layers of the immune system include the innate and the adaptive systems and their related defence mechanisms.
To keep things straight-forward, I like to use the military analogy of an army protecting its territory. The immune system comprises an army of soldiers or specialist immune cells that exist in the white blood cells, and they identify enemies and effectively destroy them. The enemies could be a range of things, for example, foreign agents like bacteria and viruses and also defective body cells.
For the last 100 years or so, western medicine has focussed on chemical interventions designed to destroy invaders on our behalf. Think about antibiotics, antiviral agents, and chemotherapy. These medical treatments are of course super important when we need them - but also important for both our resilience to infections in the first place, and our recovery from illness, is our innate ability to react rapidly to any invaders.
And this is where turning ‘within’ and back towards natural methods that strengthen our own defences can make a real difference to our health. For example, it could be the difference between a minor 24-hour cold or stomach bug, and spending a week in bed with flu or food poisoning.
What’s the link between gut health and the immune system?
Because our intestines are inside our bodies, most people don't realise that our digestive tract forms a protective barrier between our bloodstream and the external world. But in fact, our guts and our immune systems are very closely linked, with 70 to 80 percent of immune tissue situated in the digestive tract.
If you think of your digestive tract of one of the main gateways into the body (for food, toxins and germs alike), the mucous membranes that line that tract are one of the first lines of defence against infectious agents or pathogens.
And supporting those membranes is the vast ecosystem of friendly bacteria that reside in your digestive tract. Another key line of defence, your microbiome has a powerful, beneficial effect on the gut's immune system, aids in the production of antibodies, and help regulates other functions of the digestive system, for example, stomach acid levels, which is itself also important for defence against external pathogens.
One of a number of factors that impact the health of our gut bacteria is antibiotic usage. Unfortunately antibiotic medications do not discriminate well between infectious bacteria and beneficial bacteria, so their use may sometimes upset the delicate natural balance between the two, which can in turn have its own health consequences.
Overuse of antibiotics is also become a bigger problem for society at large as bacteria become resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics and we are seeing the emergence of super-bugs such as MRSA.
So, to help ensure you don’t deplete your beneficial microflora, don’t be too quick to pressure on your GP to prescribe antibiotics and, unless you have a severe or persistently troubling infection, try giving your body a chance to deploy its natural defences first.
How might the colour red benefit immune health?
Whilst there are many things you can do to protect your immune health and maintain a balanced immune response, my tip today is to pay attention to red foods.
Red is not an arbitrary selection, but recommended because in the model of health and healing I’ve been trained, red symbolically represents the immune system. It is also linked to our fundamental sense of safety and security in the world and our physical wellbeing at large.
Red vegetables and fruits may help support immune function through a variety of mechanisms.
They are typically high in Vitamin C which is known to help white blood cells function more effectively, strengthen the skin’s defence system, and help wounds heal faster.
Another benefit is that red foods are fantastic sources of antioxidant nutrients that neutralise or disarm potentially harmful chemicals called free radicals in the body which are produced by invaders to fight off the troops of the immune system.
This is important because if the production of free radicals were to overwhelm the body’s capacity to neutralise them, then this may lead to cellular damage, oxidative stress and inflammation, which may in time develop intro chronic disease.
A variety of powerful antioxidant nutrients are required by your body to assist with this process including Vitamin C, and E, beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A), polyphenol compounds such as lycopene - the carotenoid that gives some red fruits and vegetables their rich colour, and anthocyanins from the flavonoid family which are also found in red foods.
Some red fruits like pomegranates, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries are also natural sources of ellagitannins that are metabolised by the gut microbiota and are reported to have numerous beneficial effects on human health including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, prebiotic, and cardioprotective properties. This essentially means they’re great for your gut and the rest of your body.
Red cabbage is the perfect ingredient for a probiotic rich sauerkraut. And other red plant foods such as red kidney beans, red lentils, red onions, red chicory and red apples are rich in various prebiotic fibres that provide long-term nourishment for your gut.
Reflect for just a few seconds on the red vegetables and fruits that you eat on a regular basis….
How many from this list could you name off the top of your head?
Radishes
Red grapefruit
Red grapes
Rhubarb
Red onion
Watermelon
Goji berries
Red currants
Blood oranges
Red kidney beans
Red Apples
Beetroot
Cranberries
Strawberries
Cherries
Pomegranate
Tomatoes
Red peppers
Raspberries
Red cabbage
Red chicory
Of course, I’m a big advocate of eating across the whole colour spectrum for ‘whole health’ (thats red, orange, yellow, green, blue, white and brown), but if you got stuck naming just a handful of the red foods, start with expanding your repertoire of red foods this week in the knowledge these may be helping support your immune system, gut health and beyond.
Next time you’re out shopping for fruit and vegetables, will you think red?
Next steps
If you would benefit from support with any of the following, please talk to me about how we can work together to help you take the anxiety out of healthy eating and help you build your vitality:
you are prone to infections, coughs and colds or otherwise vulnerable to illness
you are showing signs of digestive distress or have a chronic gut condition
your relationship with food is adding to your anxieties, and you’d like to learn more about building a healthy connection with food, eating and your body
you would like help creating healthful habits and reprioritising your self-care at this time
you’re looking for personalised guidance around taking supplements to support your health and where to source high quality natural products
